The Blessingway

I cannot even begin to share how blessed I have been by your many blessings, beads, encouragement, notes, quotes, poems, and love. I have shed many (happy) tears, and I feel so honored! I will print out all of my sweet messages and keep them near to me during labor. If you are just now checking in, here is info about my virtual blessingway. I wanted to share a few of the beautiful poems & quotes that were shared with me. And thank you so much to everyone who participated and to those who said a silent prayer or sent a positive thought for me. If you would like to add to this, please feel free to leave a note in the comments!

Thank you again; I feel so loved!
Caroline

Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers -strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength. -Barbara Katz Rothman

“Birth is the sudden opening of a window, through which you look out upon a stupendous prospect. For what has happened? A miracle. You have exchanged nothing for the possibility of everything.” -William MacNeile Dixon

Ordinary Miracle
by Barbara Kingsolver

I have mourned lost days

When I accomplished nothing of importance.

But not lately.

Lately under the lunar tide

Of a woman’s ocean, I work

My own sea-change:

Turning grains of sand to human eyes.

I daydream after breakfast

While the spirit of egg and toast

Knits together a length of bone

As fine as a wheatstalk.

Later, as I postpone weeding the garden

I will make two hands

That may tend a hundred gardens.
I need ten full moons exactly

For keeping the animal promise.

I offer myself up: unsaintly, but

Transmuted anyway

By the most ordinary miracle.

I am nothing in this world beyond the things one woman does.

But here are eyes that once were pearls.

And here is a second chance where there was none.

Willow Tree
Anonymous

I am a willow tree,
Strong, yet fluid

graceful.

I can bend with the wind,
but my roots are tough,

indestructible.

Opening to birth my child
is flowing with the wind:

from a soft and gentle breeze
to a stormy gale
back to a soft and gentle breeze.

My body is strong, but flexible.
It is my friend, it knows how to open.
I am a friend to my body

eating well, walking, and loving myself.

I shall birth safely, freely, openly . . .

among my loved and trusted ones.

I am the willow, flexible

beautiful resilient
endowed with the power of surrender

to the wind rustling through my leaves,

my branches.

My roots reach deep into Mother Earth
Anchored in Her strength
I bring forth life
In joy!

“As women, we are inherently both power-filled and power-full. Each one of us knows on some level that we do have awesome strength at our core.” –from the book Mother Rising

"There is no other organ quite like the uterus. If men had such an organ they would brag about it. So should we" - Ina May Gaskin

"Remember this, for it is as true and true gets: Your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. The Creator is not a careless mechanic. Human female bodies have the same potential to give birth well as aardvarks, lions, rhinoceri, elephants, moose, and water buffalo. Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body."

— Ina May Gaskin (Ina May's Guide to Childbirth)

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.  ~ Rajneesh